Tape rewinding device and method



Patented Nov. 27, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE TAPE REWINDING DEVICE AND METHOD Mark B. Andrews, Kirkwood, Mo.

Application October 24, 1945, Serial No. 624,153

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to a tape rewinding device. More particularly, it relates to a device that is peculiarly adapted for rewinding pressure-sensitive tape.

It is an object of the invention to provide a rewinding machine that may be used with pressure-sensitive tape, and which will rewind the same without telescoping of the rewound roll.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rewinding device of this kind that operates through a slip friction, particularly one having an adjustable tension.

A further object of the invention is to provide a tape rewinding device wherein the tension for unwinding the tape from a former roll is applied to a peeling drum, other than that upon which the tape is rewound, with a friction drive between the peeling drum and the rewinding roll.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rewinding device with means for adapting it to use with laminated tape.

A further object of the invention is to provide a peeling roll or drum which has only limited surface engagement with the tape. Another object is to provide a rewinding device which can readily meter the amount of tape rewound in terms of revolutions of the driving drum.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the rewinding machine;

Fig. 2 is an end elevation, partly broken away;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of one side of the machine;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, taken through the peeling drum mounting; and

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2, showing the rewinding drum and the friction clutch.

The rewinding machine may conveniently be mounted on a base Ill having a horizontal portion II and a vertical portion l2.

A tape supply core I3, in the form of a ring, is shown as mounted upon a spindle l4 that extends from one face of the vertical support l2.

The core 13 has tape ll coiled thereon. This tape may be the pressure-sensitive type of tape, formed from cellophane or the like, with a suitable adhesive on one side. This tape may be wound through a processing mechanism 20, which may be a printing mechanism or other suitable processing means. It is frequently desired to print legends upon the tape. Other processing known in the art is stripping or slitting means, which may divide the tape into several narrower strips.

From the means 20, the tape I1 is drawn under an idler roll 2|. Thence it goes over a peeling drum, generally indicated at 22, and finally is drawn down onto a rewind core 23, which is mounted upon a rewind shaft 24, to be explained in more detail hereafter. It is understood that the idler roll 2|, the peeling drum 22 and the shaft 24 are all mounted in the vertical support I2.

Where it is desired to produce a laminated tape, an additional roll 25 of tape may be supported upon a shaft 26, also mounted upon the support l2.

The roll 25 illustrates the type of tape supporting roll preferred in this mechanism. As

shown in Fig. 2, the shaft 26 is threaded into the support 12, for adjustment lengthwise, and is secured in adjusted position by a wing nut 21 behind the support.

The shaft 26 has a fixed flange 28 at the front of the panel. An adapter disc 29 is slipped over the shaft 26 against the flange 28. An annular core 30 of the tape roll 25 is fitted over the shaft, and engages over a circular projection 3! on the disc 29. Then a similar disc 32 is fitted over the shaft, it having a similar circular projection that fits into the other end of the core 30. The two discs and the core thus form a tape holding unit that is rotatable on the shaft. A rubber washer 34 is applied over the free end of the shaft to hold the discs and the core together. It is apparent that cores of different widths are accommodated for by varying space between the discs. Cores of different diameters require only the substitution of discs of different diameters.

The second coil of tape 25 is shown as wound onto the core 30. For illustrative purposes, this coil on the core 30 is shown as somewhat telescoped, a condition that is very undesirable and which is cured by rewinding in the present mechanism.

The tape 35 from the coil 25 is drawn down over the idler roll 2! between the tape I l and the said idler roll. It then is superposed over the tape I! as the same passes over the peeling drum 22 and down onto the rewind roll.

The peeling drum is mounted upon a shaft supported within the vertical support l2. On its outer end, the peeling drum has a crank 4|, by means of which it may be rotated. Obviously, a motor could be employed to drive this shaft. It will be seen that the surface of the peeling drum is serrated at 43, so that it presents only narrow edges in contact with the adhesive sur- 3 face of the tape. The back end of the shaft 40 receives a driving pulley 35 locked thereto by a set screw 46. The pulley has two grooves 41 and 48 of different depths. This provides a means to change the tension on a driving cable, as will appear.

The shaft 24 of the rewind core 23 is threaded at its outer end. An inner adapter disc 50 is threaded onto this end of the shaft 2t and has projection 51- thereon adapted to enter one end or" the opening in the core 22. The adapter 55 may be located axially along the shaft 2 2, so as to present the core 23 in proper alignment with the other cores. A similar adapter 52 is also threaded onto the shaft onto the opposite side of the spool 23. The latter adapter is turned sufficiently tightl to firmly clamp the core 23 onto the shaft 2 3 so that they rotate together.

The shaft 24 has a flange engaging against the front face of the vertical support l2. The opposite end of the shaft 2 projects through the support it and is, also threaded. It receives a friction clutch device, generally indicated at 5B.

In this friction clutch, there is a first fixed clutch member 5? threaded onto the shaft 2 3 and locked thereon by a lock nut 58. A driven disc 59 is also disposed rotatably on the shaft A friction washer 88 is provided between the fixed disc and the driven disc 59. On the other side of the driving disc as there is a locking disc El, also threaded onto the shaft 2 3. A friction washer 52 is disposed between the driving disc 59 and the locking disc Si. The disc iii is secured in set position by a lock screw 53.

The driving disc 55 is provided with a cable groove M, by means 0; which it receives the cable 65 that extends between the driving disc 59 and the pulley 45 on the shaft fill.

It will be seen that the clutch friction may be varied by loosening the. locking screw and turning the locking disc ti on the shaft 24 to clamp the driving disc 59 more tightly between the fixed disc 53.

It has also been discovered that the processing means 253 may apply a tension to the tape ll that differs from the tape 35' drawn from the spool 28. This may be sufilcient to produce enough inequality in the two laminations that the curL It has also been discovered that this curling can be avoided by driving the processing means 2G from the main power meanathrough a slip friction 5i operat dby the cablete. The clutch 57 may be th'e'sameas the clutch 55.

Operation The operation of the winding device is follows:

A spool iii of tape is disposed on the shaft M.

The tape from this spool is then sound through the processing device 22?; then under the ,icller'roll 2i, and over the peeiing drum 22 with its adhesive side against the serrations 43. Thence, itis drawn down onto the spool It adheres to the serrations E3 an extent suffi cient so that rotation the dru' will unwind drum 22.

The force through the clutc 55 is much less than that required to withdraw the tape from its supply roll. It will be seen by reference to Fig. 1 that in this operation the tape does not usually extend directly down tangentially to both the peeling drum 22 and the rewind roll on the spool 23, as the force applied to the rewind roll is desirably limited to the smallest amount necessary to overcome the adhesion of the tape to the serrations at on the peeling drum.

It will also be seen that an even force is applied to the tape in the rewinding operation. Any small variations that would be occasioned in the force applied to the tape .rawn by the rewind roll off of the peeling drum are insufficient to apply a tension to the tape being rewound that will materially vary between the start of the rewind roll and its finish at a substantially increased diameter. Further, the slip friction will inherently accommodate large variations in this tension to prevent it from increasing to a point where excess tension would be applied and resulting telescoping would occur.

Where it. is desired to produce laminated tape, other rolls, such as the roll 25, may be included. This tape is then wound down under the idler roll 2i, onto the top of the tape 3? with its adhesive tape against the tape 61. It adheres to this latter and is drawn over the peeling drum by the adhesiveness of the tape to the serrations 33. In this arrangement, it is desirable to boost the delivery of the tape to the friction roll from the supply, to lower its tension to equal that of the tape drawn from the roll 25. This may be zuzcomplished by driving the processing means '25 through the slip clutch 5?.

This tape rewinding device is conveniently adapted to rerolling tape into smaller rolls, for rewinding laminated tape, for salvaging telescope-d tape rolls, and for providing measured length of tam on rolls. As the amount of tape withdrawn from the supply roll it is a function of the number of turns of the peeling drum 22, it is readily understood that a certain number of rotations of the peeling drum will withdraw a certain amount of tape from the supply roll and rewind it ontothe rewinding roll 23. Ordinarily, it is so easy to count the rotations of the crank H that it would not be necessary to supply a counter on the peeling, drum. It may be remarked that, where the unwinding andrewinding force is applied to the rewinding roll, the constantly increasing diameter of this roll presents insurmountable difficulties in determining the amount of rewound tape'as a function of the number of rotations of the power means.

It will, of course, be understood that the peeling drum or the processing means, or both, could be geared directly to the rewinding roll through a slip friction mechanism and that means other thanthe' cable 55 could be used for this transmission of power. Other means of this character would be chains or friction belts. Also, a low torque or an adjustable torque motor, or an equivalent means, could be used if it insures only a mold'tension on the tape at the roll 23.

What is claimed is:

1. In a rewinding machine for rewinding adhesive tape from a suppiy roll to a rewinding roll. a base, a supply roll support on the base, a rewinding roll support on the base, a peeling roll on the base disposed to receive the adhesive tape from the supply roll, means to rotate the peeling roll, said peeling roll being thereby adapted to withdraw the tape from the supply roll, and to hold the same adhesively but with less force than the adhesive force of the tape on the supply roll. the rewinding roll support being adapted to hold a rewinding roll to receive the tape from the peeling roll, and low torque means to rotate the rewinding roll support, said peeling roll having a serrated surface for limited contact with the tape, the serrations being normal to the axis of rotation.

2. A device of the type described, comprising a support member; means for rotatably support: ing a supply roll of tape on said support member; means for rotatably supporting a rewinding roll on said support member; a peeling drum rotatably mounted on said support member for pulling adhesive tape from a supply roll, the periphery of said peeling drum containing a series of serrations normal to the axes of rotation; means for rotating the peeling drum; and means interconnected with the peeling drum for rotating the rewinding roll support when the peeling drum is rotated so as to pull the tape oiT the peeling drum.

3. The method of rewinding pressure responsive adhesive tape from a supply roll onto a rewinding roll, which includes the steps of pulling the tape from the supply roll by a. rotating peeling drum having the tape in frictional adhesive contact with the peripheral surface thereof; and pulling the tape from the peeling drum onto the rewinding roll with just sufficient force to overcome the adhesion of the tape to the peeling drum, so as to peel it therefrom.

MARK B. ANDREWS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,236,669 Burt Aug. 14, 1917 1,818,459 Bryan Aug. 11, 1931 1,972,851 McCarthy Sept. 4, 1934 2,147,776 Mitchell Feb. 21, 1939 2,166,852 Weiss July 18, 1939 2,181,373 Kent Nov. 28, 1939 2,200,000 Johnstone May 7, 1940 2,233,361 Anderson et a1. Feb. 25, 1941 2,256,746 Mayer Sept. 23, 1941 2,307,406 Howard Jan. 5, 1943 2,325,400 Hoover July 27, 1943 2,409,597 Sonne, et al Oct. 15, 1946 

